The Science Channel had a Mythbusters 24 hour marathon yesterday. I spent almost all of yesterday sitting on my bed, making stuff for a craft fair today and watching. This is a list of some of the things I noticed.
Either Jamie and Adam argued a lot for frequently in the beginning or they’ve edit all of that out in the later episodes.
There used to be a myth expert. I totally forgot about her.
Adam can get very annoying. I think I’d choke him if I had to work with him for an extended period of time.
Most awkward, then awesome moment: The second crew (Tory, Grant and Kari) trick Adam into getting shocked by the Ark of the Covenant. He was really hurt and angry and there was a long, kind of scared silence which was ended by Kari’s very somber “Did you see God?”
Kari has staying power, unlike the other women on this show. Who were those girls that came and went so quickly?
I think they’re working on script a lot more these days, IIR from a special they did on how they make an episode to begin with. Or maybe it was an interview they did. Which may explain the lessened arguments and the fact that Adam can be a bit annoying. I see him as overly enthusiastic, myself.
I wish I’d seen the Ark episode. I think I had the TV off most of yesterday and wasn’t aware there was a marathon. Boo! But they have 'em moderately often, so I’ll likely have another chance.
BTW, I’ve reported this post to the mods so they can move it, as I’m moderately certain you meant for it to be in Cafe Society, not the Pit.
I saw Adam and Jamie when they did their ‘tour’ (for lack of a better word). Someone asked them about Scottie (the one with all the tattoos). They said she still does some behind the scenes work and she still shows up in some episodes, but overall she was never really comfortable in front of the camera and chose not to stick around.
I’ve also read elsewhere the she has her own business and the Mythbuster’s schedule was too hectic.
Adam and Jamie have stated somewhere or other that the directors/producers of the early episodes told them to argue on screen, but the Mythbusters weren’t comfortable with it and eventually built up enough creative input to say no.
I also believe the same story was behind the Ark shock, and that nobody was happy they had been incited into doing it.
Adam went through a lengthy period of doing lots of “funny voices” on camera. He seems to have dialed it back a little, which is fine with me. A little of that is OK, but I swear there were some episodes where he did the entire thing in a fake Cockney accent or whatever. If one of my co-workers did that, I’d strangle them.
One of my other favorite awkward/awesome moments is when Scottie (Oh, how I miss her) and Kari goaded Tory into trying to jump that wagon on his bicycle, and he did a massive face-plant onto the concrete as a result.
IIRC, Scottie is the only other woman who’s actually been in the cast. The other women who have been on the show were either one-season “Mythterns” or Kari’s maternity replacement or whatever.
I recall reading somewhere (can’t find a cite) that Adam and Jamie actually don’t like each other and that some of the acerbity on the show is genuine. Understandable; if their actual personalities are anything like their on-camera personas I personally think that if I had to spend a few hours with either one of them I’d be entertaining thoughts of punching them in the mouth. Don’t get me wrong…I thoroughly enjoy mythbusters. I just don’t think Adam and Jamie are very likeable people.
Now Kari is something else…I’d be happy to spend a day or three with her, and a few nights as well (Is my bias showing?) I’ve always had a thing about redheads, and she has a lovely hard body. She’s obviously intelligent and talented, I believe she has an artistic career outside of Mythbusters.
SS
(In spite of my list of annoyances here, I love the show!)
This is first and foremost a television show made for entertainment purposes, with allegiance to the sponsors, Discovery corporate folks, and shareholders. Sometimes there seems to be great gaps in their methodology, and other times it’s obvious at the time they describe the myth which answer they will give (e.g. in “beat the speed camera”—I doubt that they would air an episode that demonstrates a simple effective evasion technique that is available to all)
Somewhere in the middle seasons their AV guys started putting in annoying “swoosh” sound effects between every single scene, pulling the prior scene off the screen to one side or another. This was an annoying distraction. They have toned it down. This is something that really stands out when you watch a MB marathon.
I am irritated by the extreme non-branded universe they try to create. I can understand that maybe they don’t want to make an hour-long advertisement for Coca Cola, especially if Pepsi might want to sponsor the show, but who gives a hoot if they smash up a Ford today and a Toyota tomorrow? The incidental logos that we see in normal life are all grayed out or taped over. In a recent show they even taped over the logos on the workout gear of an olympic athlete guest star. Annoying.
I don’t know the trend with their “woo” science stuff or their testing of stupid sayings (e.g. does a rolling stone really gather no moss), but I skip over both of those categories.
In the beginning, they did each segment from beginning to end without interruption and then moved on (e.g. Rocket Car segment followed by Barrel of Bricks segment). In a very short while they realized that it was more engaging to the viewers to interleave the segments, which they do to this day.
Speaking of the other women who were on before Kari, I remember one in particular who was on for a few shows, Christine. She seemed more sensitive than the others, and I think Jamie must have made her cry more than once.
She was the one who had a sort of breakdown while poised at the top of a building ready to go down a zip-line holding onto a sheet of plywood. I was disturbed by that moment and was upset that Discovery aired it—they could have easily edited it out and not put her moment of true anxiety on national television.
It seems to me that this is a style of some of those cable shows - don’t they play this up big on that chopper show? I always thought it was a gimmick that didn’t work for them - I’m glad that they did away with it.
I think the actual line was that they aren’t friends and don’t hang out outside of the show. I’ve never seen a cite that said they actually dislike each other.
And yeah MsWhatsit, I was ready to throw something at my screen after an hour of Adam doing voices in the pirate special. It looked like Jamie wanted to smack him too.
The thing that annoys me most about Mythbusters, while we’re airing our grievances, is Rob Lee, the awful narrator. Way too many cheesy puns. I’d prefer a show that Adam and Jamie narrated themselves.
I totally agree with that, but they have said there are often times where they may have done 8 hours worth of testing but only had time to show you 15 minutes worth of it. Though you’d think by now they’d find a way to make sure people realize they aren’t leaving giant gaps in their research. It’s almost like they need to hire on someone to double check their methods and keep an eye on the editors ("make sure you put in a few seconds of this and a few seconds of that so the audience can see that they DID test that) to give the show some more credibility and get it out of the realm of pure entertainment.
I’m not sure why you would consider that to be woo, but I did skip past the crystal/pyramid healing thing…that was just stupid.
What’s bothering me most is that they are getting away from testing myths and going more towards just experiments or finding things to blow up…which is find, but it seems like they’re making up myths to have excuses to do it. “Today we’re going to test the myth that it’s impossible to blow up a dead pig…lets see if we can do it”. My guess is that they’re worried if they just become another 'lets blow it up, take it apart or build something" they’ll become the same as most of the other shows on right now (Worlds biggest fix, Deconstructed, Build Destroy Build Junkyard Wars, etc)
They’re both pretty awful at working off a script, though I’d imagine if you’d just let them watch the show with a mic and told them to tell the audience what’s going on (without telling them what to say) they might be okay.
Thanks for the link runner pat, I hadn’t seen that NYT interview before where Jamie comes right out and says “we don’t even like each other”. I appear to have been referencing this. So heh, maybe it’s true that the dislike is mostly on Jamie’s part.
Oh yes… I forgot about the stupid puns and annoying wordplay. Someone must enjoy hearing cutsy phrases built from a thesaurus for the simple goal of having all of the words begin with the same letter.
Oh god yes. I hatehatehate that motherfucker. It’s not just the horrible script (which, frankly, they could absolutely do without), it’s his…pregnant pause…TOOone. Just in case you MISSED the horrible PUN!, he feels he needs to… emPHAsize it !
I wish he’d catch an errand bit of blown up cement mixer sometime.
(Is my bias showing?) I’ve always had a thing about redheads, and she has a lovely hard body. She’s obviously intelligent and talented, I believe she has an artistic career outside of Mythbusters.